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Democrats’ Platform Hawkish on Foreign Policy by Stephen Zunes

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“Most Progressive Dem Platform in History” Hawkish on Foreign Policy

Posted: July 27, 2016

Stephen Zunes

Image by Joeff Davis

The Democratic Party platform may indeed be, as some have proclaimed, the “most progressive” in the history of the party—at least on various important domestic issues. But some of its foreign policy planks reflect a disturbingly hawkish worldview consistent with those of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Declaring that “we must defeat ISIS, al-Qaeda and their affiliates,” the platform calls for the United States and its allies to “destroy ISIS” strongholds in Iraq and Syria. There is no acknowledgement that these strongholds are in heavily populated urban areas, thereby risking large-scale civilian casualties, and no mention that the rise of these extremist organizations are a direct consequence of previous U.S. military interventions in the region. Regarding Iran, while there are many legitimate criticisms of that country’s reactionary regime, the platform appears to go overboard with its accusations, such as the claim that “Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism.” Many analysts would give that designation to Saudi Arabia, with whom the platform says the U.S. should “strengthen its security cooperation.”

It also says the party will “push back” against Iran’s “support for terrorist groups like Hamas.” While there was a brief period of some limited past Iranian support of that Palestinian Islamist organization, there is no apparent evidence that it continues.

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What Are We Doing in Syria by Jeffrey Sachs

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America’s True Role in Syria
by Jeffrey D. Sachs

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Ankara with Turkish President Erdogan last month. (Photo: Turkish Govt/via Twitter)

 

Syria’s civil war is the most dangerous and destructive crisis on the planet. Since early 2011, hundreds of thousands have died; around ten million Syrians have been displaced; Europe has been convulsed with Islamic State (ISIS) terror and the political fallout of refugees; and the United States and its NATO allies have more than once come perilously close to direct confrontation with Russia. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama has greatly compounded the dangers by hiding the US role in Syria from the American people and from world opinion. An end to the Syrian war requires an honest accounting by the US of its ongoing, often secretive role in the Syrian conflict since 2011, including who is funding, arming, training, and abetting the various sides. Such exposure would help bring to an end many countries’ reckless actions.

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30th Anniversary Special Editorial: Tikkun at 30

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Ok, I’ll admit it — I am proud of our role as a prophetic voice for peace, love, environmental sanity, social transformation, and unabashedly utopian aspirations for the world that can be. Over these past thirty years Tikkun has been a platform for young writers to emerge as public intellectuals and for established thinkers and academics to posit groundbreaking philosophies and radical ideas. It has also been a stage for novelists and poets to flex their minds and for spiritual progressives and social change activists to urge self-reflection, inner psychological and spiritual healing, and direct action. Our goal of tikkun olam — the healing and transformation of the world — is far from having been achieved (duh!). But the Tikkun community has made some important contributions along the way, including a perspective on the psychodynamics of American politics which, had it been adopted by liberals and progressives, might have spared us some of the most troubling features of American politics in 2016.

Editorials & Actions

The Mess in Syria by Robert F. Kennedy , Jr. & response by Stephen Zunes

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Ediotr’s Note;  We found this analysis of why Western powers got involved in the Syrian war in EcoWatch.  We then asked  Tikkun contributing editor Stephen Zunes for his response. Both are printed below. One thing stands out for us: though Obama assured me when he met with me in 2006 that he would support Tikkun’s proposed Global Marshall Plan (www.tikkun.org/gmp), once elected he allowed the militarists to frame the alternatives in foreign policy in ways that ignored the impact a Strategy of Generosity could have had in preventing the emergence of ISIS (ISIL or The Islamic State) and hence the muddying of the lines between a popular democratic opposition to the Assad regime and a Sunni struggle to achieve dominance through meeting the brutality of Syrian Prime President Assad’s regime with even greater brutality. The nonviolent generosity approach to the region, had it been a central part of Obama’s agenda in his first two years in office when he had a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, could have precluded the rise of ISIS and other Sunni extremist groups and made it easier for the democractic opposition in Syria to rally the majority of their own country against the human rights violating regime of Assad in Syria.

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Cherie Brown on Black Lives Matter Platform and Israel

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Black Lives Matter Platform and Israel
By Cherie Brown

 

In the new Black Lives Matter Platform, there is a section on International issues that focuses on Israel. The platform describes the current  oppression of Palestinians and the ongoing occupation by labeling it genocide. The use of this term, ‘genocide’, stirred up enormous upset amongst many Jews, both from the mainstream Jewish community and the progressive Jewish community.  

Many Jews alive today had relatives who were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust in the middle of the 20th century and find the use of the term genocide  to describe what is happening to Palestinians offensive.  Some Jews (like the JCRC of Boston) responded by saying they will now have nothing to do with Black Lives Matter.  Other groups, Truah, for example, took offense with the use of the term genocide but called for continued support of Black Lives Matter and ongoing dialogue about the disagreements.

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Ethnic Cleansing is NOT Legitimized by the Torah

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Ethnic cleansing is not legitimized by the Torah    
by Rabbi Zalman Kastel
“Spikes in your eyes and thorns in your side” (1) is what the Torah predicts the remaining original inhabitants of the land of Canaan will be to the Israelites if the Israelites do not drive them out as God instructed them to do when they conquer the land. One man recently interpreted this verse in the presence of a few Jewish people, as being instructive for our times. When we heard him say that, quite a few eyes turned to me for a response and I knew that I must examine this verse and find its meanings. I promised to share my thoughts at my Saturday afternoon ‘Shiur’- Torah learning discussion. Let me be clear that this post is not about what people should or should not do practically.

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Glenn Greenwald on Why the Saudi Regime and Other Gulf Tyrannies Donate Millions to the Clinton Foundation

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Why Did the Saudi Regime and Other Gulf Tyrannies Donate Millions to the Clinton Foundation? By Glenn Greenwald [ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/staff/glenn-greenwald/]
Aug. 25 2016, 7:42 a.m.
 
As the numerous and obvious ethical conflicts surrounding the Clinton Foundation receive more media scrutiny, the tactic of Clinton-loyal journalists is to highlight the charitable work done by the foundation, and then insinuate — or even outright state — that anyone raising these questions is opposed to its charity. James Carville announced [ http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/james-carville-clinton-foundation-attacks-227305 ] that those who criticize the foundation are “going to hell.” Other Clinton loyalists insinuated that Clinton Foundation critics are indifferent to the lives of HIV-positive babies[ https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/768556490202505216 ] or are anti-gay bigots [ https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/768556697120047104 ].

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U.S. MILITARY NOW SAYS ISIS LEADER WAS HELD IN NOTORIOUS ABU GHRAIB PRISON

Joshua Eaton
Aug. 25 2016, 10:56 a.m.

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

IN FEBRUARY 2004, U.S. troops brought a man named Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badry to Abu Ghraib in Iraq and assigned him serial number US9IZ-157911CI. The prison was about to become international news, but the prisoner would remain largely unknown for the next decade. At the time the man was brought in, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba was finalizing his report on allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib’s Hard Site — a prison building used to house detainees singled out for their alleged violence or their perceived intelligence value.

Editorials & Actions

Obamacare Undermined By Its Deal To Allow Profits for Insurance Companies While Forcing People to Participate

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Obamacare’s Faltering for One Simple Reason: Profit

Jon Schwarz
Aug. 27 2016, 8:05 a.m.

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

There have been dozens if not hundreds of news articles about Aetna leaving the Affordable Health Care Act’s online marketplaces in eleven states, and whether this signals serious problems for Obamacare down the road. But none of them have truly explained that what’s happening with Aetna is the consequence of a flaw built into Obamacare from the start: It permits insurance companies to make a profit on the basic healthcare package Americans are now legally required to purchase. This makes Obamacare fundamentally different from essentially all systems of universal healthcare on earth. (There is one tiny exception, the Netherlands, but of the four insurance companies that cover 90 percent of Dutch citizens, just one is for profit.)

Why does this matter? The answer is complicated but extremely important if Obamacare is going to avoid collapsing.

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The Olympics–reflections from Brazilian liberation theologian Leonardo Boff

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The Olympic Games: A Metaphor for a Humanized Humanity 

Leonardo Boff

   Theologian-Philosopher
          Earthcharter Commission 

Since this past August 5th, Rio de Janeiro has been home to the 2016 Olympic Games. An immense infrastructure of arenas, stadiums, new avenues and tunnels has been created, that will leave an unforgettable legacy to the Cariocapeople. The opening and closing ceremonies are occasions of great celebration, when the host country attempts to show the best of its art and uniqueness. This time the opening ceremony was of unimaginable splendor, with a great parade of thesamba schools. The effect of the lights and images projected on enormous screens created a magical and almost surrealistic atmosphere, provoking tears of elation in many. 

The principal moment was the parade of delegations from 206 countries, more than are represented at the United Nations, of which there are 193.

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Jewish Ethnocentrism

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Editor’s note:  A perspective worthy of serious debate from Mondoweiss. Interesting though that the people who find Jewish ethnocentrism problematic don’t find other forms of identity politics equally problematic. http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/politics-jewish-ethnocentrism

The politics of Jewish ethnocentrism
How can Bret Stephens, who is so sensitive to any slight he perceives against his own people, use the phrase “disease of the Arab mind” when writing about hundreds of millions of other people? That is what Stephens, the Pulitzer prize winning columnist for the Wall Street Journal, did in his recent article about the Egyptian Olympic athlete who refused to shake hands with with his Israeli opponent. “The disease of the Arab mind”?

Editorials & Actions

US Media Propaganda Paving the Way for Military Escalation In Syria

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editor’s note: War is not the way to peace.  Try a Strategy of Generosity worldide (see www.tikkun.org/gmp) and download the full color description of the strategy

“Human rights” propaganda campaign paves way for military escalation in Syria
19 August 2016
Photographs and video of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh have rapidly become ubiquitous in the media in the US and Western Europe after being distributed by a group aligned with the CIA-backed Islamist “rebels” in Syria. The toddler is shown sitting somewhat dazed in the orange seat of a new and well-equipped ambulance, his face covered in dust and tinged with what appears to be dried blood from what was reportedly a cut to his scalp. Video shows him waiting unattended as a number of photographers and videographers record his image to be broadcast around the world. Clearly, those in charge sensed that the boy, with a mop of hair covering his brow and a cartoon t-shirt, provided a marketable image.

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The Mess in Syria

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Editor’s Note: the following analysis gives us a perspective on the contradictions in American policy in Syria. Sadly, it remains in the discourse of “Security Through Domination” and hence leaves out of the equation what would happen were the U.S. to launch the Global Marshall Plan within a framework of Tikkun’s proposed “Strategy of Generosity.” To read that alternative path, download the brochure at www.tikkun.org/gmp.  –Rabbi Michael Lerner   rabbilerner.tikkun@gmail.com

 

From: Michael Brenner

mbren@pitt.edu

 

THE SYRIAN BADLANDS

The Syrian imbroglio is the most complex politico-military conflict of modern times.  In terms of number of players, diversity of interests and purposes, intermingling of sectarian and secular ideologies, multiple connections with external parties, and harlequin patterned battlefield, the field of action is unique. Only the Spanish Civil War exhibited a similar mix of elements, although it was simplicity itself by comparison to Syria.

Editorials & Actions

Clinton Picks Advocate for TPP and Fracking to Set Up Her White House

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[ https://theintercept.com/2016/08/16/hillary-clinton-picks-tpp-and-fracking-advocate-to-set-up-her-white-house/ ]

The Intercept_
Unofficial _Sources

IMAGE [ https://prod01-cdn04.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/08/ken-salazar-hillary-ft-3-article-header.jpg ]
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton Picks TPP and Fracking Advocate To Set Up Her White House
Zaid Jilani [ https://theintercept.com/staff/zaidjilani/ ]
Naomi LaChance [ https://theintercept.com/staff/naomilachance/ ]
Aug. 16 2016, 1:56 p.m

Two big issues dogged Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary: theTrans-Pacific Partnership [ http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/15/politics/45-times-secretary-clinton-pushed-the-trade-bill-she-now-opposes/ ] trade agreement (TPP) and fracking [ https://theintercept.com/2016/05/23/hillary-clinton-fracking/ ]. She had a long history of supporting both. Under fire from Bernie Sanders, she came out against the TPP [http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/07/politics/hillary-clinton-opposes-tpp/ ] and took a more critical position [ http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/03/hillary-clinton-debate-fracking ] on fracking. But critics wondered if this was a sincere conversion or simply campaign rhetoric.

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Attempt to Jump Start Israel/Palestine Peace

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Editor’s Note:  I do not know the person who wrote to the King of Saudi Arabia or to Chancellor Merkel–he apparently lives in Europe. And I doubt if anything will come of this effort without first a massive funding of what I call “an Empathy Tribe” to work both in Israel and Palestine and break through the fears that both sides have of each other. And at the moment, I’ve seen no openness from any funders to provide that funding. Nevertheless, I believe that little steps like approaching national leaders in the U.S., Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and wherever else they can be reached to begin to challenge the high level of defeatism and pessimism about achieving peace is a good thing, so I commend this particular effort by Abraham van Kampen deserves our praise and support. Please read all that he has sent me, and if you then have any ties to foundations, government officials, or wealthy individuals, ask them if they would be willing to fund the creation of an empathy tribe that could begin the work of undermining the hatred and fear that keeps the Occupation in place.